Think you're a ‘supertasker’? Probably not

Study finds very few can drive safely, talk on cell phone at the same time

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A student talks on a hands-free cell phone while operating a high-tech driving simulator during a University of Utah study in 2008. In addition to driving like impaired drunken drivers with blood-alcohol levels at the legal limit of 0.08 percent, the study showed chatty motorists bog down traffic.

A very small percentage of the population can safely drive while talking on their cell phones, but chances are high that you're not one of these "supertaskers."

In a new study, psychologists have identified a group of people who can successfully do two things at once, in this case talking on a cell phone while operating a driving simulator without noticeable impairment.

Supertaskers only make up about 2.5 percent of the general population, however, said study team member James Watson of the University of Utah.

"Given the number of individuals who routinely talk on the phone while driving, one would have hoped that there would be a greater percentage of supertaskers," Watson said.

"And while we’d probably all like to think we are the exception to the rule, the odds are overwhelmingly against it. In fact, the odds of being a supertasker are about as good as your chances of flipping a coin and getting five heads in a row."

20 percent longer to hit brakes
In the study, the researchers assessed the performance of 200 participants over a single task (simulated freeway driving), and again with a second demanding activity (a cell phone conversation that involved memorizing words and solving math problems). Performance was then measured in four areas: braking reaction time, following distance, memory, and math execution.

As expected, the driving ability of most of the participants suffered if they simultaneously talked on their cell phones.

It took them 20 percent longer to hit the brakes when needed, and following distances increased 30 percent as the drivers failed to keep pace with the simulated traffic. Memory performance declined 11 percent, and the ability to do math problems fell 3 percent.

However, when supertaskers talked while driving, they displayed no change in their normal braking times, following distances or math ability, and their memory abilities actually improved 3 percent.

'Something special'“There is clearly something special about the supertaskers,” said study co-author David Strayer, also of the University of Utah.

“Why can they do something that most of us cannot? Psychologists may need to rethink what they know about multitasking in light of this new evidence. We may learn from these very rare individuals that the multitasking regions of the brain are different and that there may be a genetic basis for this difference."

Watson and Strayer are now studying expert fighter pilots under the assumption that those who can pilot a jet aircraft are also likely to be natural supertaskers.

The study will be published later this year in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

The FTC reminded us Monday what many a parent knows all too well: Not all kids' apps are safe, especially where privacy is concerned. So, as a parent of two small children in a house full of tablets, what do I do to keep them safe? Here are my guidelines.